“Women Are Like Boats”: Discourse, Policy, and Collective Action in Sweden and India

During a visit to a village in Nayagarh district in Orissa, India, the women in the mahila samiti (women’s group) in the village complained that the men from their village were always going out on visits and training. The women rarely had such opportunities. Kailash, a man from the Nayagarh forest federation, the Mahasangha, who had accompanied me to the village, asked them, “Would any of you agree to go to these meetings alone?” “No, not alone but together . . . in a group,” said several women.